Three Gifts and Three Names
by vifetoile89
Summary: An AU sequel to "Prince Consort." Kai and Gerda are faithful servants of the royal household. But they won't stand to hear lies told about the Queen. So Gerda tells Anna and Hans' three children a tale of what really happened to their mother, and what she left behind.


**Three Gifts and Three Names**

by vifetoile89

A/N: I don't own Frozen; I also don't own Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," although the particular way that that story intersects with Frozen is indeed mine. If you like this you might enjoy my story "Prince Consort," a prequel of the day of Lisa and Anders' birth. As for whether this will continue or not, I have some ideas, but I'm not committing to any yet. Enjoy, all the same, and please leave a review. :-)

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Kai and Gerda had weathered worse storms than this.

When they were young, skinny as saplings and with the blood hig in their cheeks, Kai had been spirited away by a witch of ice and snow, and Gerda had set out, alone, to rescue him. The journey had taken years, and when they had returned to Arendelle, they were ready to marry and find their places in the world.

That place, they decided, was in service at the royal palace. There, like every servant, they learned their handfuls of secrets. They had been of the few servants who knew of the magical gift – the Ismakt – that had been handed down in the royal family since time uncounted.

This Ismakt had appeared in the aunt of the previous King, King Mikael the Steadfast. She had abandoned rest and peace, styled herself the Snow Queen, and had abducted Kai and almost driven him out of his mind. But she had died, and seven years later, King Mikael's firstborn, Elsa, lined her cradle with ice from her first laugh. Kai and Gerda noticed this, and although Gerda was at first reluctant to trust the gift even if it came from such a tiny hand, Kai saw at once that the little princess had no malice in her, nor did her ice.

They kept the royal family's secret close to their hearts, even years later, after the accident. It broke Kai's heart to see little Anna asleep in front of her sister's door, not remembering nor understanding why her sister had shut her out. But Gerda and Kai, childless themselves, looked after the little princesses as best they could.

When King Mikael and Queen Marguerite were lost at sea, it fell to Gerda and Kai, heads bowed in their mourning caps and veils, to lower the black crepe over the royal portrait. The servants looked to them to model proper behavior around Anna, grieving and weeping openly every day, and Elsa, who, when she finally emerged from her room, left her with her head held high and her face frozen as a mask. Kai and Gerda knew the girls as well as they might know their own children, if they'd ever had any.

But Anna did something that surprised the two of them, surprised everyone in the castle. She got engaged. She had met a young prince of the Southern Isles, named Hans, at Elsa's coronation. Hans and Anna had exchanged love letters and gifts for over a year before Anna asked Elsa for permission to wed. When they had known each other for so long, Elsa had no practical grounds on which to refuse. So, for the first time in many years, wedding garlands had decorated the royal chapel, and the bells had rung out to celebrate the marriage of Princess Anna and Prince Hans.

Three years later, Kai and Gerda had stood in the royal chapel again, bursting with pride as little Prince Mikael was christened, and Anna named Elsa his godmother, wouldn't have anyone else even considered. The two servants, now going a little grey, had dared to hope that the squirming prince, not even aware of the grave spiritual transaction underway for his soul, might heal the rift between the two sisters.

But then, things began to fall apart.

It was Prince Hans' idea to revitalize the royal family tradition of hunting for two weeks in the summer at Jorundgaard, the royal lodge. The year Mikael was three, Anna begged Queen Elsa to join them. Queen Elsa had reluctantly agreed, but maintained her solitude. It was her habit to ride out alone, every morning. On the last day of the hunt, she did not return.

Princess Anna sent out search parties and went out on her own to seek her sister. But Queen Elsa never returned, and her body was never recovered. After a month of denial, Hans convinced his wife to accept the inevitable, and to ascend to the throne.

Kai and Gerda stood in service to the third coronation in their lifetimes, deeply unsettled, somehow, by the whole business. They were contemplating retiring, settling out somewhere in the country to raise flowers, but with Anna in such deep grief, they quietly agreed it was their place to help her through this transition.

As Queen, Anna ruled with a generous hand and a trusting heart. Despite her grief, she took joy in raising Mikael, and then, two years later in preparing for her new baby. On a warm day in autumn, right before the cold set in, Anna gave birth to twins. Gerda and Kai presided, presenting the newborns to their mother in order. The older one was a girl, named Elsa within the hour. The second, smaller baby was named Anders, a peculiar trait, as there was no one named Anders within the family connection. Queen Anna was, by eyewitness accounts, healthy and delighted an hour after giving birth.

Within two hours, she had fallen seriously ill. She took a terrible fever and lay delirious for days. When she recovered, her strength was greatly diminished, and she was furious with her husband. But Prince Consort Hans arranged for her to be sent south, "to recover," while he managed the kingdom for a few months.

A few months turned into years. The Queen returned, for brief visits that grew briefer and briefer. It became clear that Queen Anna's memory had become permanently impaired. She herself had to admit, she did not think herself fit to rule. Finally, Prince Consort Hans did the responsible thing, according to him. He made Queen Anna sign away her right to rule, while she stayed to the south to continue her recuperation, and he had himself crowned King Hans, of Arendelle.

At his coronation, Gerda and Kai served, unsmiling, making sure that young Lisa – as King Hans called her, he would never call her "Elsa" – and Anders behaved themselves.

They had weathered worse storms.

They had weathered worse storms than seeing the castle redecorated and refurbished, to bring it up to the modern times, seeing English brought in as the language of the Court, when previously good, solid Norwegian had been good enough for all of Arendelle's subjects.

Worse storms than seeing the royal portraits of Queen Elsa removed and placed into storage, and all servants who spoke fondly of the old Queens dismissed.

They had weathered worse storms than having to stand by, silent and dutiful, as King Hans had sat his little children down and explained to them their familial situation. That their mother was alive, but that she had moved away because she didn't love her children. That some mothers just never loved their children, and there was nothing anyone could do to change their minds. But Papa, Papa would always love his children, as long as his children were good, and behaved just as princes and princesses should.

Gerda was ready to spit fire after that incident. Her anger boiled up in her for the rest of the evening, until it was time to prepare the children for bed, and she had an idea. Not for nothing had she gone into the desolate mountains and quested to find her soulmate. She knew a thing or two about love, and it was not reliant on "as long as you're good." And she knew a thing or two about Queen Anna. She'd seen the light on her face when her little twins were shown to her.

So that night, when Gerda put the children to bed and Kai dimmed the lamps in the nursery, Gerda said to them, "Do you want to hear a story about your mother?"

Mikael sat up at once. "Yes!"

Lisa rolled onto her side. "Should we? Would Papa be mad?"

"Not if we don't tell him," Gerda said, smiling and hoping her eyes twinkled in a grandmotherly fashion.

"I'm up for a story," Kai said. He could read his wife's intention quite well by now. "What do you say, Anders?"

Anders lay on his side, still and quiet. He'd not said so much as a word since the conference with his Papa.

"It's a story of the gifts your mother left you… and the _real_ reason she left Arendelle."

"She left us gifts?" Lisa sprang to the edge of her bed, looking all over the floor. "Where?"

"They're not gifts as can be wrapped," Gerda said, sitting on Lisa's bed. "They're in your heart. Do you want to know?"

Rather than answering for herself. Lisa leaned over and tugged on her brother Anders' bedsheet. "Come on, Anders! Say yes! Say you want to know! Come on!"

Anders shook her off, saying "Oh, all right."

The lamps had been dimmed. Kai closed the curtains and settled himself on the only chair in the nursery sized for an adult. Gerda began to tell the story.

"If you look at the portrait of your mother, the Queen, you'll see that she has a streak of white hair over her right ear. Well. She got that white hair one night, when she met a troll."

"But Papa says trolls aren't real!" Lisa insisted. Mikael hushed her, and Gerda drew herself up proudly.

"Your Papa's a fine man, but he wasn't born in Arendelle, and there's things even a King doesn't know. A troll told your mother, when she was in the palace gardens, that there was a great destiny waiting for her, in the wide world, far from Arendelle. She might ignore it, but her life would be empty as an upturned bowl without it, and her kingdom would suffer. But if she wanted to fulfill her destiny, she had to be ready to chase it the minute she heard the call. That, dears, is called a vocation. When you hear the call, you follow it."

"I heard having a vocation means becoming a nun," Mikael said, confused.

"Sometimes, but not always, dear," Gerda told him. "Your mother accepted what the troll had to offer, and the troll leaned forward, and kissed your mother on a spot above her right temple. Let's see… right around here." She kissed Lisa's hair, and the girl giggled.

"But years passed, and your mother grew up. And when she grew up, she understood more of what she had promised. And she met your father, and married him… and she gave birth to you, first Mikael, and then on one day, Lisa and Anders. And she loved you all, so much. But on the day you two were born, that was when she heard the call. Right from above her right ear, she heard it, like a fairy's voice whispering in her ear. '_It's time to leave_,' the voice said."

"And she left," Anders said, curling up tighter

"She left," Gerda said, "but not until after she left each of you with a gift, and a name, something she'd planned out from the day you were born."

She put her hand under Mikael's chin so he sat up a bit straighter. "To Mikael she gave her father's name – the name of a steadfast and cautious King – and her loving heart. She trusted him to look after his little siblings with love and loyalty."

Lisa knew she was next, and she welcomed Gerda's pat on her head like a kitten. "To Lisa, she gave her beloved sister's name. Queen Elsa was a graceful and wise ruler. But she was lonely, and full of sorrow, so Anna also gave her daughter her smile, so she would hopefully know more joy than the poor Queen."

Anders was still lying, facing away from Gerda. She didn't resent him for it. He was a sensitive boy, and felt things very deeply. "And to her youngest, boy, Anders, she gave her very own name, because she knew he would need her strength and her spirit for the days to come. And she gave him the merry blue of her eyes," Gerda's voice cracked a little, "so that he could see the joy and beauty in the world, like she did."

That was it, three for three, nothing to do but wrap it up. "And so, she put on her hardiest shoes, kissed her children good-bye, and set out across the fjords, knowing that one day, she would return to Arendelle, her destiny fulfilled, and return to the children she so loved."

Anders coughed. Gerda looked at him, and saw that he was shaking. He coughed again, a sob that he was desperately trying to hide. Before Gerda could do anything, Lisa had sped off of her bed and beside him. "Don't cry, Anders," she said automatically. "Don't cry." She pulled him into a sitting position and hugged him, while his pale little face turned red.

"That's a horrible story!" he choked out. "Mother—Mummy gave away her heart, and her smile, and her eyes, and even her name, and now what does she have to journey with? How will she ever find her way back home? Why couldn't she stay here, and live with us? Now she's blind, with no heart, no spirit, no joy, no name…" he choked up, and then added, "and anyway, Lisa's eyes are blue, too!" And that would have made Gerda laugh at the sweet innocence of it, in any other context but this.

"It's okay," Lisa said, "Mummy's going to come back, she's got to, Gerda said so. She's just got to. Don't cry, Anders, you're chilling me."

Gerda thought she had heard wrong, and she moved herself to Anders' bed. Kai and Mikael also crowded around, and Gerda was about to tell Anders to cry all that he liked, there was no shame in it, when she realized he wasn't crying tears. Little snowflakes drifted out from his pale eyelashes. He didn't hug Lisa the way she hugged him, but gripped his sheets in his little fists, and they were turning stiff and icy. His guttering sobs left white puffs of mist on the air.

Gerda met Kai's eyes. He saw. He nodded, solemnly accepting this charge. They had weathered worse storms. She nodded in return, and then said, "Anders, don't cry, now. Look, look at what you've made. You have another gift – a gift your mother gave you, from your aunt, Elsa."


End file.
